On January 29, 2016, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) made available to the public its proposed revision to the Employer Information Report (“EEO-1”), which would add a section requiring large employers to provide pay data.

The EEO-1 report is filed by certain federal contractors (those with 50 or more employees and a qualifying federal contract) and other private employers (with at least 100 employees) each year. It currently requires these employers to report the number of individuals they employ by job category, sex, race, and ethnicity.

The EEOC’s proposed revision to the EEO-1 report would require employers to provide pay data as well. However, only employers, including federal contractors, with 100 or more employees, would be subject to the pay data requirement. These employers would report the number of employees whose W-2 earnings for the prior 12 months fell within each of 12 pay bands. The pay bands range from $19,239 and under to $208,000 and over. As in the current version of the EEO-1 report, pay data would be broken down by job category, sex, race, and ethnicity. For example, an employer may report that it employs 9 White Females who are First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers in the $62,920 to $80,079 pay band. The EEO-1 report with the proposed revisions can be seen here.

The EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) believe that the pay data would provide insight into pay disparities across industries and occupations and that the data would strengthen federal efforts to combat discrimination. The public has until April 1, 2016 to submit comments regarding the proposed revision to the EEO-1 report. If the proposed revision becomes final, covered employers would be required to submit pay data as of the September 30, 2017 EEO-1 filing deadline. If you would like to submit comments, you may do so here.

Leech Tishman will monitor the proposed revision to the EEO-1 report and will provide additional information as it becomes available.